On his first day in office yesterday, George Ferguson axed recently-introduced charges for on-street parking on Sundays.

He also ordered the Council House renamed Bristol City Hall, to reflect that it belongs to the people of the city and not the council.

But as he was officially sworn in, the mayor also acknowledged he faces a tough task in cutting a deficit now believed to be £7 million bigger than reported only last week. And that could mean council tax rises as the authority tries to balance the books.

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Mr Ferguson told 400 guests at yesterday's ceremony at the Passenger Shed at Temple Meads that he found out about the increased deficit, which has risen from £25 million to £32m, in his first meeting with council officials after starting his new job at 9am. He said he knew "tough times" were ahead but would do his best to deliver essential services.

Mr Ferguson will get rid of charges for on-street parking in the city centre on Sundays just three weeks after the £1-an-hour charge was introduced.

He said: "I've heard the traffic management arguments but I firmly believe in doing everything we can to keep Sunday special and already it is clear that it would only raise peanuts a week, while penalising people coming into the city centre for leisure and shopping.

"It is a straight-forward decision – on-street parking is free from this coming Sunday and on every Sunday until I can be persuaded otherwise."

VIDEO: ON CAR PARKING CHARGES (ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW)

Mr Feguson also said that from next year he would be looking at "freeing parts of the city centre of traffic" on the first Sunday of the month, taking inspiration from Bristol's twin city of Bordeaux.

Mr Ferguson gave a 40-minute speech to the audience, which included his friends and family, councillors, council officers, community groups, representatives from other councils and some of the former mayor candidates.

Mr Ferguson received loud applause from the crowd when he said: "What is great about Bristol is we are our own place – we don't depend on London. We are a proud provincial city and we are independent."

He explained he had chosen to hold the ceremony at Brunel's Passenger Shed because he wanted to take inspiration from the great engineer.

The new mayor said he would work with Bristol's neighbouring authorities but added: "I have always said I wanted to make Bristol recognised in its own right, without having to mention Bath."

To big applause and cheers he said: "Bath may have the beauty but Bristol has the brawn."

Mr Ferguson said that in his former architects office at the Tobacco Factory he had a sign that read: "It's the people, stupid".

He said he would have the same sign in his new office at the renamed Bristol City Hall, which he changed from the Council House yesterday morning.

"This is the ultimate project – it's much more than architecture, it's about people," he added.

Mr Ferguson said that yesterday he had met with the four party leaders of the groups on the council – the Liberal Democrats, the Conservatives, Labour and the Green Party.

After the ceremony he told The Post that he was still hoping to create a "rainbow cabinet", made up of councillors in proportion to the different parties' level of support in the mayoral election.

He said he thought this was a more "up to date" way to decide the make-up of his cabinet, which he thinks will be in place by early next week.

Before signing the official declaration of acceptance, Mr Ferguson said he wanted to take a personal oath.

He quoted the same oath once made by young men of Athens when they became citizens: "I shall not leave this city any less but rather greater than I found it."

He asked the audience to repeat the line with him.

He then signed the official declaration of acceptance of office, which read: "I, George Ferguson, having been elected to office of mayor of the city and county of Bristol, declare that I take that office upon myself and will duly and faithfully fulfil the duties of it according to the best of my judgement and ability."

Mr Ferguson has confirmed that he intends to take his mayoral salary in Bristol pounds, the new payment system introduced in September to encourage people to spend their money in the city.

Comments

@KBillies - "George winning is nearly as good as a Lib Dem victory. Pretty dam good."
I'm glad that you've found some consolation after the Lib/Dem candidate not only lost, but came fourth, in the election.
There were concerns before the election, that the 'independent' candidate, George Ferguson, had previously been a Lib/Dem member. There was an obvious public backlash against the Lib/Dems in the election which worked in GF's favour.
I am sure that GF is aware of his perceived association with the Lib/Dems and will carefully consider his position (and the risk of losing public support). If he is too closely associated with the Lib/Dems, their Executive Members and their policies during his term in office he will quickly loose public support.
I hope, like the majority of voters, that GF is truly independent and that his administration will put right a lot of the previous Lib/Dem crack-pot ideas.
Withdrawing city-centre Sunday on-street parking charges is a good start. Let's hope we see many more common sense decisions in the coming days and weeks from our new mayor as he proves to everyone that he is truly independent!

@Joke_Bristol
I suspect the additional £7 million is thanks to that pie munching git, Eric Pickles MP who is Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government and has been shrinking the cash Bristol gets from Treasury coffers.

If the deficit has seemingly 'grown' by £7,000,000 in one week, you have to ask, what other lies have the people of Bristol been told about the city's finances? I wonder how much all of these transport consulatations have really cost us all? This one act of financial transparency is important, we should ensure that this continues.

Council tax may have to rise by around 2% according to BBC Points West. This is moderate, sensible, reasonably progressive thinking - and it would mean that the impact of imposed Coalition Govt cuts on vital local services would be a little less severe.
Freezing council tax as some other candidates committed themselves to would have meant even more severe impacts on public services. Committment to a freeze over a number of years also showed a lack of realism given the dire financial situation.
http://tinyurl.com/dxw95pp

here's a thought. now we have a mayor (elected), why is there a need for a ''lord mayor'' (unelected and with a ludicrously out of date title)?
first budget cut here mr mayor - abolish this now pointless position and save some money!